Given the debate over the legitimacy of protests against the Democratic agenda on health care, cap-and-trade, and the economy generally, I thought it might be instructive to look at how the last administration addressed protests against its policies. The contrast is quite stark:
Faced with protesters camped outside Bush’s residence in Crawford, White House officials chose to meet with Cindy Sheehan and others:
About 70 anti-war protesters shouted “bring the troops home” from Iraq near President Bush’s ranch on Saturday, prompting two White House officials to come out to meet with mothers who lost children in combat in Iraq.
National Security Adviser Steven Hadley and Deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin listened to the concerns of Cindy Sheehan and five or six other mothers in a meeting that lasted about 45 minutes, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. Duffy said Sheehan told the two officials she appreciated the meeting.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer didn’t question the legitimacy of anti-war protesters:
I think the president welcomes the fact that we are a democracy and people in the United States, unlike Iraq, are free to protest and to make their case known,”
White House Press Secretary Trent Duffy echoed these sentiments:
The American people have a right to protest, and the right of free speech is something that we’re fighting for in this war on terror, to preserve that right of free speech. So the President welcomes opinions from all Americans.
While Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was demonized by the Left, he blocked security from removing a protester at one of his appearances:
Protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday, and one man, a former CIA analyst, accused him of lying about Iraq prewar intelligence in an unusually vociferous display of antiwar sentiment.
“Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” asked Ray McGovern, the former analyst, during a question-and-answer session.
“I did not lie,” shot back Rumsfeld, who waved off security guards ready to remove McGovern from the hall at the Southern Center for International Studies.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said protesters were ‘well-intentioned:’
The President talked about some of this the other day in remarks at the Pentagon. He recognizes that there are differences of opinion on Iraq and our role in the broader Middle East. Some people want us to withdraw from Iraq and withdraw from the Middle East. They are well-intentioned.
Interesting. How does that compare with the Obama White House?
The Democratic National Committee addresses health care protests:
The Republicans and their allied groups – desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill – are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country.
However, much like we saw at the McCain-Palin rallies last year where crowds were baited with cries of ‘socialist,’ ‘communist,’ and where the birthers movement was born – these mobs of extremists are not interested in having a thoughtful discussion about the issues – but like some Republican leaders have said – they are interested in ‘breaking’ the President and destroying his Presidency.
These mobs are bussed in by well funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives and funded by the special interests who are desperately trying to stop the agenda for change the President was elected to bring to Washington. Despite the headline grabbing nature of these angry mobs and their disruptions of events, they are not reflective of where the American people are on the issues – or the hundreds of thousands of thoughtful discussions taking place around kitchen tables, water coolers and in homes.
The right wing extremists’ use of things like devil horns on pictures of our elected officials, hanging members of Congress in effigy, breathlessly questioning the President’s citizenship and the use of Nazi SS symbols and the like just shows how outside of the mainstream the Republican Party and their allies are. This type of anger and discord did not serve Republicans well in 2008 – and it is bound to backfire again.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs won’t give protesters any legitimacy – in stark contrast to Fleischer, Duffy, and McClellan:
“I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of grass-roots lobbying,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs during a morning off-camera session in his office with reporters.
“This is manufactured anger,” he said.
Well, you can say one thing for the Obama administration: they have brought genuine change to the way the White House addresses dissent.
Cross-posted to theconservatives.com
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Brilliant, Brian.
toughintn (Diary) Wednesday, August 5th at 12:46PM EST (link)Free speech is a beautiful thing, and if I expect to keep my right to it, I must defend the rights of others as well. I wish liberals considered it as sacred as the conservatives do.
"This is manufactured anger"?
Lammo (Diary) Wednesday, August 5th at 12:55PM EST (link)Oh really? OK, fine. Just because that’s how you kings of Astroturf play the game that must be what “the other side” is doing. Well, actually, no. But I will give you this – - the anger is “manufactured” and the “Socialist Creep” is the owner of the factory. Get this through your thick “I won” head – - We The People don’t want your socialized medicine. The rules prevent me from saying any more.
Don’t be so open minded that your brains fall out. (John Corapi, The Black Sheep Dog)
The other side...
1stRichard (Diary) Wednesday, August 5th at 12:58PM EST (link)Our local opponents, in a counter protest I had a lively debate and found who they are. Lead organizers Jon Weissman of Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and Jeff Napolitano from AFSC, some of the co sponsors The International Socialist Organization, Franklin/Hampshire Health Care Coalition, UAW Local 2322 and so on
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Read the fine print on the flyers….
Cosponsors: Action Center for Action • ACT UP NewYork • Amnesty International • Artists for Guaranteed Health Care • Back Home Again • Barbara Ehrenreich
• California Nurses Association • Cortland Ciizens for Progressive Reform • Eastern Panhandle Single-Payer Action Network • General Board of Church and
Society of the UnitedMethodist Church • Generations for Peace and Democracy • Gray Panthers • Gray Panthers—DC • Gray Panthers—MI • Healthcare–NOW!
• Healthcare-NOW! North NJ • Health Care for All Philadelphia • Hoosiers for a Common Sense Health Plan • Hunger Action Network of NYS • Iowans for
Healthcare for All and Des Moines CatholicWorker • Jonathan Tasini • Kentuckians for Single-Payer • Labor Campaign for Single Payer • Mass-Care • NESRI
• Network of Spiritual Progressives • NJ One Plan One Nation; Healthcare-Now! • Orange County Health Care for All • Physicians for a National Health Program
• Progressive Democrats of America • PDA—Ohio • PDA—Washington • PDA—Virginia • Politics for a Human Community • Private Health InsuranceMust Go!
• Public Citizen • Single Payer NewYork • Single Payer NOW• Upper Potomac Chapter of PNHP • Utah Jobs with Justice • Virginia for Guaranteed Health Care
• Western Mass Single Payer Coalition • Western PA Coalitio for Single Payer Healthcare • Women’s Liberation Task Force for National Health Care
http://www.healthcare-now.org/docs/july302.pdf
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The left is being lead by http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/ hosted on Blue State Digital and Blue State Digital is Obama!
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So what is their side in all this? I think this childish name calling from the left is a distraction from the contrast. The left is clearly the Astroturf of grass-roots lobbying, liberals are being lead as useful idiots, stupid and ignorant to the fine print.
What are "right-wing extremists"? People who take this freedom idea too far?
bannedtroll Wednesday, August 5th at 1:48PM EST (link).
I’m a banned Democrat who came here to promote the idea that Republicans are racists for disliking Barack Obama.
A slightly different "contrast" for your amusement
not_neo_just_conservative Wednesday, August 5th at 2:51PM EST (link)The hated and despised George Bush was +16.4% in the RCP average of polls on 03 August of 2001. Obama is at +15.2% right now.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/archive/?poll_id=19 (go to the graph and mouse over to 8/3/2001)
Haven’t seen many “Less popular than George Bush” headlines lately.
(I’d be willing to bet that Democrats were over sampled in both cases as well.)
Sorry for the OT comment.
Ugh... can you spot the hypocrites here?
vtcarpediem Wednesday, August 5th at 5:33PM EST (link)“The right wing extremists’ use of things like devil horns on pictures of our elected officials, hanging members of Congress in effigy, breathlessly questioning the President’s citizenship and the use of Nazi SS symbols and the like just shows how outside of the mainstream the Republican Party and their allies are. This type of anger and discord did not serve Republicans well in 2008 – and it is bound to backfire again.”
Gee i remember some awful caricatures of Bush over the past 8 years… worse than anything that Obama has seen thus far… and most of them were in mainstream periodicals.
This is the fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives accept free speech, diverse opinion, and dissent as inalienable rights. Liberals only accept their opinion and everyone who disagrees is a racist, or a fascist, or dumb, or (insert ugly word here). This is why I think on a whole, the constant high pitch whine from the left over every issue ever to be discussed doesn’t have a chance against the oft-reserved, logical-based and concise uproar of the right when our freedoms and constitution are trampled upon. The right only gets worked up when it is important… I guess that is why it is easy to lead the left like a bunch of lemmings with the left-leaning 24 hour news cycle. Most conservatives just don’t give a darn about the small stuff that gets the left all worked up every day. We save it for the big meaningful items that actually matter.
I think of this attribute as a positive personal trait but a weakness politically. I don’t get worked up every day by the nonsense that is out there. I’m generally a pretty happy person and I surround myself with people and experiences that keep me happy. This is good personally, however from a political standpoint (the ability to get people to group en masse and follow some directive) it is a weakness. I’m not going to go out and petition or protest every last issue out there… most lefties will petition and protest everything they can like it is some way to elevate their status among their peers or in society. I just don’t get it.
PS, Has any liberal actually taken time to read the definition of fascist?